Cook Book Challenge: Week 35

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It's been such a long while, but I'm finally delving back into the challenge of getting through my ever expanding collection of books. Picking up where I left off, this is the third instalment of Philadelphia's recipe books. You know the type when they're like, "Buy our products and get a free book!" deals. Except these books are actually good. For the third book, they teamed up with Cadbury for extra noms. It's probably no surprise that this book is dessert focused. I'm pretty sure there's not one savoury recipe in the whole thing, which is moderately disappointing. But it's hard to remain disappointed when browsing page after page of mouth watering recipes.

Cream cheese involved recipes are something I make relatively often, so there was little in there that was particularly challenging. One of the new candidates, however, was whoopie pies.

Through contact with so many international bloggers, whoopie pies and something I keep hearing about but have never experienced. I only had the most vague idea what they were. So It was definitely time to try them for myself.

More chocolatey heaven under the cut…

8Mar2013

Checkered Berry Parfait

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And the berry madness continued. 8.25 kg of strawberries required active searching for uses for them. A nice change, considering I'm usually I'm trying to hold back from devouring a whole punnet at once. The first thing that came to mind was this dessert. It's extremely berry hungry so it fit the bill nicely. It's something I've made a few times before, and posted the first time I tried it, but I've since been playing and perfecting this recipe so it was time to revisit it.

The beauty of this recipe is that it works with any berry you like. If the effort involved seems too much, you don't even have to make it chequered. You could marble it, or only make one flavour and freeze it inside a bar tin. It's completely open to interpretation.

I chose strawberries and blackberries…

16Jan2013

The Living End Retrospective Cupcakes

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Last December, one of my favourite bands in the world treated us to the most amazing tour in the world. Calling it The Retrospective Tour, they played every single one of their 6 LP albums in full, one album per night, in every state. To make it easier for the die hard fans, they sold a limited ticket called The Big Red Ticket that granted access to all 6 shows at a discounted price. All states got the self-titled album played twice as it is their most beloved album. But here in Melbourne, the home town of the band, we were given a real treat. We got their Roll On album twice and their self-titled album 5 times, including an under 18s show (ever other show was 18+) that they played as a matinee performance before their final night time show. In the end it totalled 37 shows. To top all that off, they played the shows at a tiny local pub, making it a very intimate set of shows. Could those guys have given us a more amazing tour? They called it their thank you to the fans, but it far exceeded that.

I had wanted to make something special to celebrate the tour. The original plan was to recreate all 6 album covers in fondant, but by the time December rolled around I didn't have enough time. I couldn't let the tour pass without making something, so I decided to make a smaller tribute.

Every moment here is a moment to be seized…

9Jan2013

Festive Peppermint Chocolate Ripple Joconde

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I'm not sure who gets more excited about these chocolate ripple cakes more: me about making them, or my family about consuming them. Either way, this mutual excitement makes the process even better.

Chocolate ripple cake has such a welcome place on the Australian Christmas dessert table. It's also something that's quick and easy to make and a process I'm familiar with. It's ideal when made a day in advance and needs no finishing touches before serving. That made it a perfect candidate for our Christmas feast. This cake was one of the two main desserts I made for Christmas, alongside the macarons and pudding truffles for nibbles.

This version featured the familiar chocolate poinsettia on top, but I gave the joconde sponge a little twist.

Continue reading →

25Dec2012

12 Days of Christmas :: 12 Pudding Truffles

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This final instalment of the 12 Days blog series is another creation I make most years. I usually make many different kinds of truffles for Christmas and put a few aside to dress up as mini puddings. This year I'm not making a truffle tree, so rather than grabbing a few choice spares, I chose a cake recipe especially for the occasion.

We don't really like the traditional steamed puddings in our household. One we do like, however, is the untraditional chocolate and raspberry version. These truffles are made from chocolate and strawberry cupcakes to represent our ideal steamed pudding.

Lots more under the cut…

20Dec2012

12 Days of Christmas :: 10 Chocolate Ganache Tartlets

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Mince tarts are so pretty. So festive. But so unappealing to all of us. I don’t know what it is, but we just don’t like them. I always stare at them in the supermarket wishing that were different.

So I decided to pinch the aesthetics and substitute the taste. These sweet tartlets make for a delicious and festive dessert for the chocolate-lover.

Moar…

18Dec2012

12 Days of Christmas :: 9 Snowman Truffles

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We don't get much snow in Australia when compared to the rest of the world. During winter we get a little in our alpine zones along the east coast. Rarely, Melbourne and Hobart see snow during severe cold snaps. It's never happened in my hometown in my lifetime. I've seen snow once when I travelled to Falls Creek with a few friends some time ago. It's really not as soft and fluffy and lovely as the movies had me imagine. Still, it was a load of fun. We couldn't afford any of the recreational stuff, so we frolicked in the snow for a day. I made my first and only snowman with my friends, while others made phallic objects out of the snow for everyone on the ski lifts to see. As you do.

During Christmas, though, you can forget about snow. Our climate tried to fake it last year thanks to the La Niña we experienced. We had a massive hail storm from which my car still bears the cosmetic scars. Mass flooding across my state further threatened to ruin the day. Except in typical Australian spirit, we weren't letting that happen so easily. People gathered up the hail and shoved it in the eskies to keep the drinks cold. Others got out in the board shorts and started swimming or body-boarding down what were formerly main roads.

Most years, though, it's sweltering. Some years you get lovely 30°C days that you can make it through. Other summers it can exceed 50°C and you spend the day sprawled out in front of a pedastal fan, eating watermelon and waiting for the sun to go away. The last time I experienced a festive season like that, I was celebrating it in a rural area, so we spent the day hoping the bushfires would go away as well.

Despite our sweltering Christmas days, snow is still an iconic part of Christmas. Influenced by cultures on the other side of the globe, all our Christmas cards and decorations revolve around snow and pictures of families or Santa rugged up in warm clothes. We spray fake snow on our trees or around the borders of our windows. We adorn our trees with icicles and houses with large light displays cover their lawns and rooftops with batting or wadding to resemble snow. Everywhere there are penguins and snowmen rugged up in their winter woolies.

It was only natural that snowmen should feature somewhere along the way.

We'll have some fun now before I melt…

16Dec2012

12 Days of Christmas :: 8 Santa Hat Caramel Cups

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Santa hats are one of the most iconic scenes at Christmas time. Whether it's from a Christmas graphic in a shop wiondow or your cousin's choice of head gear at the family feast, we see them everywhere throughout December. Here in Australia, we celebrate Christmas in summer, so Christmas feasts typically involve lots of summer fruit. Strawberries are amongst my favourite and they will always adorn the pavlova and anything else I can justify adding them on to. Along with strawberries, white chocolate is another familiar flavour amongst the desserts. So I figured, why not combine all three?

This dessert is a new take on an old favourite.
Santa Claus is coming to town…

12Dec2012

12 Days of Christmas :: 6 Bauble Cakes

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The single most exciting part of Christmas for me is decorating the tree. Most of November consists of me waiting for any sign that's it's appropriate to bring the tree out. This year our neighbours put up their Christmas lights really early, and that was all I needed. I eagrly grabbed the tree and set about my favourite task.

No one else in my family is really into any artistic hobbies or creatively inclined, so even when I was quite young they were more than happy to let me decorate the tree. To everyone else, it seemed like a chore. It eventually became my 'thing' at Christmas. As a kid I'd become easily bothered if people tried to 'help', because it would inevitably result in them putting decorations in places that were just aesthetically horrible. These days, my boyfriend always helps me decorate the tree. While he jokes about how pedantic I am about it and teases me about my decorating 'rules', he shares the same creativity and an eye for detail that comes with his love for artistic hobbies. He's just a pedantic as me, and the only person I trust to help me with this onerous task. It was really evident this year when we were finding places for the last handful of baubles. My sister suggested a place for him to put the one in his hand and he replied with, "No, you can't put it there. There's another bauble of the same size and colour right there." That's my boy!

As I grew up, every year I'd have a different theme. Out decorations were a haphazard collection of brand new assortments of baubles alongside ratty old ones from the 80s. I'd pick and choose colours every year, with one of my favourites being red and gold. These days, my tree is always blue and silver. I've built up quite the collection of blue and silver decorations now, a collection large enough to fit the ridiculously over-sized Christmas tree. While blue and silver is my chosen poison these days, I miss the red and gold a little. I almost have no red and gold baubles left any more, so it was with immense joy that I returned to one of my favourite colour schemes with these edible versions.

Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree…

7Dec2012

12 Days of Christmas :: 4 Poinsettia Chocolate Ripple Jocondes

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There's little around the house that remind me that Christmas is coming as well as the sign of my poinsettias beginning to bloom. Around mid-Spring their leaves begin to turn red, reminding us that December is not far away. Despite their traditional use in Christmas floral displays, the brightness of the red remind me of everything I love visually about the festive season. Red is my favourite colour. I love it's vibrancy, it's warmth and its festivity. While my Christmas tree decorations are always blue and silver, but my place settings are always red and gold. Red reminds me of time with family and loved ones, sharing joyful conversation over good food.